WASHINGTON, D.C. — Here’s how badly things are going for the Rockies: Even when they win, things go wrong.

Carlos Gonzalez, who started in tonight’s 3-2 win over the Nationals after missing all four games in Atlanta with a deep bone bruise in his right wrist, may be unavailable Saturday after experiencing increased pain as the game wore on.

CarGo didn’t look good in striking out against lefty John Lannan to open the fourth inning. Sure enough, he said afterward that his wrist began bothering him during that at-bat.

“In batting practice, you don’t have to swing 100 percent,’’ said Gonzalez. “With game speed, you have to speed it up a little bit. I got a fastball inside and was trying to turn, and it started hurting.’’

Gonzalez dived unsuccessfully for Michael Morse’s bloop single to open the ninth. When asked if he aggravated the injury on the play, he said, “I was already in pain, so I can’t tell. I was just trying to get a bunt single at the end, my wrist was in so much pain.’’

Gonzalez said he would have to see how the wrist feels before determining whether he can play on Saturday.

Other news ‘n’ notes for another day on the Rox beat:

• Jason Hammel broke out a new look _ an over-the-head delivery and high stirrups _ in tonight’s game. And lo and behold, he got some new results, winning for the second time in 13 outings since a 3-1 April.

Pitching coach Bob Apodaca suggested the over-the-head approach, something Hammel had dismissed as too drastic even for these desperate times.

“I had thought about it, but I thought it was too much of a change until I did it,’’ said Hammel. “Just being able to create that rhythm and the ability to throw the same pitch with the same delivery, it’s great. I think we’re on to something.’’

Hammel had begun tinkering with the new windup during side sessions after Sunday’s loss to the Royals.

“The benefits of it are eye-opening,’’ he said. “I felt a big difference in fastball command. Dac suggested it. He said, ‘You can try this if you want. We’ll see how it goes. I’m not going to force this on you.’ ‘’

So much for substance. Hammel (5-8, 4.23) also went for a new style, switching to the high stirrups, a la Ubaldo Jimenez, in an attempt to beat the heat and change his luck.

“Really, the idea was it would keep me cooler,’’ he said. “I don’t like all the heat and humidity. Plus I needed to change something up. I was in this rut where a lot of games we should have won when I was on the mound, we didn’t. And there were other games where I just basically didn’t even show up.’’

• The Rockies’ starting pitchers had compiled a 9.68 ERA in the Atlanta series, and only one, Jimenez, had reached the sixth inning.

• Nationals starter John Lannan (5-6, 3.64) wasn’t as fortunate as Hammel. He retired the first 10 hitters, five via strikeouts, before trouble struck in the fourth. Jonathan Herrera and Todd Helton got things started with back-to-back singles, bringing Ty Wigginton to the plate.

Wigginton smoked a line drive that glanced off Lannan’s glove and hit him in the face, prompting a sudden exit. Luckily, Lannan sustained only a nasal contusion and is listed as day-to-day.

“I heard it hit his glove,’’ said Rockies manager Jim Tracy. “Win, lose or draw, had that ball hit him flush it would be very, very somber in this office just like I’m sure it would be over there.’’

• Cole Garner hit cleanup at La Quinta High School in Garden Grove, Calif., one notch down from Ian Stewart. “That’s why I didn’t get a lot of RBIs,” said Garner. “He took them all.” Not so tonight. Garner hit sixth in his first major league start, one notch up from Stewart, and collected his first big-league hit and RBI, one that turned out to be the game winner.

• With their season spiraling downward, Rockies players are feeling the tension. So Todd Helton tried to lighten things up before the game, grabbing a microphone from a TV interviewer and asking Troy Tulowitzki a tough question: “What product do you put in your hair?’’

• For the record, the Rockies were 8 ½ out going into tonight. They were two games out at the all-star break in 2009, when they won the wild card, and 5 ½ out in 2007, when they went to the World Series.

Gonzalez returned to the Rockies’ lineup tonight five days after sustaining a deep bone bruise in his right wrist after a nasty collision with the center-field wall at Coors Field.

Tulowitzki will return Saturday from the strained right quadriceps he sustained Monday in Atlanta. Neither player will be 100 percent healthy for a while, but at this point, with the Rockies in the throes of a five-game losing streak that has dropped them a season-worst 8½ games behind the division-leading Giants, it’s time.

“No doubt about it, I’m stuck in a tough situation here,’’ said Tulowitzki. “We’re not playing good on this trip. Probably moreso than ever this season, it’s time we need to stop this losing streak.

“It’s tough, there’s no doubt about it. I’ve never been a guy to beat around the bush. We’re struggling. We’re not playing good baseball.

“Somehow we need to respond in this series, go into the break and hopefully get healthy, and play a lot better in the second half. Otherwise this season is going to be done real quick.’’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There’s no truth to those rumors that nothing is going right for the Rockies. Case in point: Five days after a nasty encounter with the center-field wall at Coors Field, Carlos Gonzalez is back in the lineup.

There was no guarantee that CarGo would return so quickly. If anything, there was an assumption that he wouldn’t.

Gonzalez has a deep bone bruise in his right wrist and a bruised left wrist. Frankly, it could have been worse, much worse.

“He’s beat to heck,’’ said Rockies trainer Keith Dugger. “We’re fortunate that’s all it was, to be honest. It’s not just a skin or knee type of bruise.’’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — You don’t see this every day, but you will tonight: Two high school teammates in the same starting lineup in the major leagues.

That would be Cole Garner, hitting sixth in tonight’s Rockies lineup, one notch ahead of Ian Stewart, his teammate at La Quinta High School in Garden Grove, Calif. Stewart hit third in those days, one notch ahead of Garner.

“That’s why I didn’t get a lot of RBIs,” said Garner. “He took them all.”

Talk about unlikely stories. Stewart was the 10th overall pick in the 20003 draft. Garner? He was selected in the 26th round and had spent his entire career kicking around the minors before being called up this week. He was sent back to Colorado Springs after one day in the big leagues, but returned today when Charlie Blackmon was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a broken foot.

Patrick, a third-generation Colorado native, is back for his second stint covering the Rockies. He first covered the team from 2005-2009, helping chronicle “Rocktober” in 2007 and also following the team’s playoff run in 2009.

Nick Groke has worked at The Denver Post since 1997, as a sports reporter, city reporter, entertainment writer and digital editor and producer, among other newsroom posts. He also writes regularly about boxing, soccer, MMA and NASCAR.